That  Old  Established 
House  “£T/>e 

M  issionary  u  nion 99 

WILLIAM  ASHMORE,  D.  D. 

Sk 


American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union  ^  >?  f  Boston 

V _  _ J 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/thatoldestablishOOashm 


William  Ashmore,  D.D. 


That  Old  Established  House 
Missionary  Union’* 

WILLIAM  ASHMORE,  D .  D . 

* 

Business  houses  like  to  speak  of  their  antiquity. 
That  means  that  they  are  long  known  and  well 
known,  and  can  be  depended  upon.  In  Boston, 
at  the  foot  of  School  Street,  is  an  old  bookstore 
with  an  old-fashioned  cut-away  roof,  with  old- 
fashioned  figures,  1732  A.D.,  upon  the  wall.  They 
are  proud  of  it. 

We  come  to  speak  of  an  old  established  busi¬ 
ness  house  called  “  The  Missionary  Union/’  and 
have  several  things  to  say  about  it. 

THE  FOUNDERS  OF  THIS  HOUSE 

The  house  originated  in  1814.  It  was  founded 
by  a  corporation  of  Baptist  gentlemen  who  were 
leaders  in  the  denomination  at  the  time.  They 
were  soon  joined  by  many  others  of  equal  celeb¬ 
rity.  They  numbered  among  them  such  persons 
as  Francis  Wayland,  Daniel  Sharp,  Dr.  Baldwin, 


Dr.  Stillman,  Baron  Stow,  Dr.  Famum,  Dr. 
Welch,  William  R.  Williams,  Spencer  H.  Cone, 
Morgan  I.  Rhees,  Solomon  Peeto,  Edward  Bright, 
Heman  Lincoln,  and  many  others  like  them,  as 
brave  and  brainy  a  lot  of  men  as  ever  put  their 
heads  together  to  accomplish  a  purpose.  These 
men  were  moved  to  organize  this  house,  partly  as  a 
result  of  contagion,  partly  by  some  special  provi¬ 
dences  occurring  at  the  time,  but  chiefly  by  a  di¬ 
vine  impulse  typified  by  an  angel  in  mid-heaven 
having  the  everlasting  gospel  to  preach  to  them 
that  dwell  on  the  earth,  and  to  every  nation  and 
kindred  and  tongue  and  people.  The  contagion 
came  from  the  English  Baptists  under  Fuller, 
Carey,  Dr.  Staughton  and  others  who  had  started 
in  business  of  this  kind.  The  providential  occur¬ 
rence  was  the  conversion  to  Baptist  views  of  Ado- 
niram  Judson  ;  and  the  impulse,  as  we  all  believe, 
came  from  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  They  got 
started  all  right,  but  for  a  while  it  was  slow  work. 
Multitudes  of  the  Baptists  had  to  be  educated  up  to 
a  belief  in  missions.  Then,  too,  the  openings  for 
their  business  abroad  were  meager  at  first.  Only 


minor  races  were  accessible.  It  was  found  that  a 
general  meeting  once  in  three  years  would  be  quite 
often  enough.  Even  then  forty  and  fifty  dele¬ 
gates  at  a  time  would  be  considered  a  good  repre¬ 
sentation.  But  the  countries  continued  to  open 
before  them,  the  opportunities  multiplied,  and 
money  came  in  more  freely.  Then  the  triennial 
meeting  had  to  be  given  up  for  a  yearly  meeting, 
and  now,  today,  at  the  annual  session  of  the 
shareholders  great  churches  are  packed,  and  there 
is  not  half  time  enough  to  go  through  the  business 
that  has  to  be  attended  to. 

THE  KIND  OF  BUSINESS  THE  OLD  HOUSE  IS 

ENGAGED  IN 

It  was  organized  to  do  a  foreign  business ;  that 
is,  business  in  foreign  lands,  —  a  heavy  export 
business.  In  one  respect  it  is  like  any  great  for¬ 
eign  business  concern ;  it  sends  out  the  products  of 
the  home  land  and  distributes  them  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  then  buys  things  to  bring  back.  It 
is  always  interesting  to  go  into  a  great  shipping 
establishment  in  New  York.  Today  they  are 


sending  off  a  shipload  of  something  to  South 
America ;  tomorrow  a  shipload  will  go  to  Europe, 
and  next  day  one  will  go  to  Africa;  and  so  it 
goes,  everywhere  under  the  sun,  to  big  nations  and 
to  small  tribes,  one  invoice  after  another  of  some¬ 
thing  to  supply  people’s  needs.  So,  in  a  measure 
with  the  old  Union.  It  does  business  in  France, 
in  Germany,  in  Russia,  in  Denmark,  in  Sweden, 
in  the  heart  of  Africa,  in  India,  in  Burma,  in 
Assam,  in  Siam,  in  China,  in  Japan,  even  in  that 
out-of-the-way  place,  the  Liuchiu  Islands,  and  the 
Philippine  Islands. 

There  is  a  difference,  though,  in  the  kind  of 
products  dealt  in.  Our  ordinary  commercial 
houses  send  out  all  sorts  of  manufactured  goods, 
from  a  locomotive  down  to  a  tin  whistle.  Our 
foundries,  our  looms  and  our  factories  often  run 
extra  time  to  supply  the  demand.  Our  chambers 
of  commerce  are  busy  finding  markets,  and  our 
diplomats  get  great  salaries  to  support  them  while 
fostering  “trade.”  Our  breadstuffs,  our  oil  that 
we  get  out  of  the  ground,  our  drugs  for  the  heal¬ 
ing  of  human  maladies,  and  forty  other  things 


*•  too  tedious  to  mention  ”  all  come  in  the  category 
of  our  exports.  The  Union  deals  in  not  a  single 
one  of  these  things ;  yet  it  does  deal  in  counter¬ 
parts  of  many  of  them,  of  a  much  higher  grade  of 
goods.  It  deals  in  breadstuffs,  —  in  the  bread  of 
life;  in  the  meat  which  endureth  to  everlasting 
life.  It  deals  in  healing  medicines,  —  in  the  balm 
of  Gilead,  in  the  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life  which 
are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  —  in  eye-salve 
to  anoint  the  eyes  of  the  blind  and  make  them  see ; 
in  fruits  of  the  garden  of  God,  long  preserved,  yet 
fresh  as  when  pulled  from  the  tree.  It  deals  in 
clothing,  too,  of  a  wonderful  cut  and  fashion,  gar¬ 
ments  of  glory  and  beauty ;  in  robes  of  righteous¬ 
ness;  in  crowns  withal;  in  precious  stones  and 
pearls  of  great  price. 

Then,  too,  it  is  doing  another  kind  of  work  out 
in  these  countries  to  which  it  is  sending  its  heav¬ 
enly  wares.  It  is  opening  highways  in  the  desert ; 
it  is  passing  through  the  valleys  and  making  them 
a  well ;  it  is  planting  the  rose  of  Sharon  in  every¬ 
body’s  dooryard  that  will  receive  it ;  it  is  making 
the  solitary  place  to  be  glad,  and  the  desert  to  re- 


joice  and  blossom  like  the  rose;  it  is  breaking 
open  prison  doors  and  setting  captives  free ;  it  is 
opening  great  hospitals,  erecting  great  printing- 
establishments,  founding  great  colleges,  starting 
great  churches,  and  everywhere  is  preparing  the 
way  for  a  “good  time  coming,”  and  is  proclaim¬ 
ing  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  just  at  hand  in 
the  valley  below  and  on  mountain  ridge  above, 
when  all  flesh  shall  see  the  glory  of  God  together. 

HOME  WORK  OF  THIS  HOUSE 

At  the  same  time  this  foreign  mission  house  is 
doing  a  great  home  work.  It  is  acting  as  a  great 
“  elevator  ”  which  receives  the  grain  from  a  hun¬ 
dred  quarters  and  distributes  it  into  a  hundred 
other  quarters,  —  a  great  receiving  house  — a 
great  clearing  house  —  a  great  investment  house, 
through  which  its  patrons  may  invest  their  small 
and  large  sums  in  the  best-paying  securities  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is  like  one  of  those 
great  watersheds  of  our  land  which  collect  all 
the  raindrops  and  all  the  showers  and  all  the 
downpours  of  water  into  one  great  reservoir, 

8 


that  it  may  be  piped  off  thirty  and  forty  and 
fifty  miles  to  supply  the  needs  of  a  million  of 
people.  The  rainshed  of  the  old  Union  beats 
the  rainshed  of  the  Mississippi  all  out.  It  ex¬ 
tends  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from 
Canada  to  the  states  of  the  South,  where  they 
have  another  watershed  and  distributing  reservoir 
of  their  own ;  and  it  furnishes  an  outlet  for  the 
missionary  funds  of  nine  hundred  thousand  people. 
We  have  not  the  best  system  of  collecting  the 
rains  that  might  be,  and  we  must  improve  it. 
Still,  there  is  always  a  bit  of  show  somewhere. 
We  have  the  fine  rain  and  the  great  rain  of  our 
financial  strength ;  we  have  our  nickels  and  our 
dimes  and  our  dollars  and  half  eagles  and  whole 
eagles  and  double  eagles  and  hundred-dollar  notes 
and  thousand-dollar  checks.  So  you  see  it  is  a 
great  business  house,  this. 

SPECIFIC  OPERATIONS  OF  THE  BUSINESS 

HOUSE 

“  Operations  ”  is  the  word  they  use  under  such 
circumstances.  The  house  commenced  operations 


in  Burma.  After  a  while  some  tribes  called  the 
Karens  began  to  come  in.  A  noted  man  sprang 
up,  called  Ko  Tha  Byu.  He  had  been  a  robber, 
\)ut  the  gospel  got  hold  of  him  and  he  became  an 
apostle  and  went  through  and  through  the  land  as 
the  fiery  cross  used  to  go  through  Scotland  among 
the  clans.  The  Karens  came  in  by  thousands. 
All  their  tribes  are  now  being  pried  up  out  of  the 
mud,  and  are  developing  an  excellent  type  of 
Christianity  among  themselves.  The  Burmans 
are  following,  and  the  Shans  and  the  Kachins  and 
various  other  tribes.  In  Assam,  among  the  wild 
tribes,  the  gospel  has  taken  hold  wonderfully,  and 
now  thousands  of  them  are  coming  in  and  are 
setting  up  for  themselves.  Among  the  Telugus 
the  word  has  operated  so  powerfully  that  at  one 
great  baptism  which  they  had,  twenty-two  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty-two  were  baptised  in  one  day , 
and  now  there  are  over  fifty  thousand  of  them 
there,  as  there  are  about  forty  thousand  in  Burma. 
So  in  China  and  in  Japan  and  in  Africa  they  are 
beginning  to  come  like  doves  to  their  windows. 
The  same  is  true  in  European  countries.  In 


10 


European  and  Asiatic  countries  the  converts  have 
been  coming-  in  at  the  rate  of  about  twelve  thou¬ 
sand  a  year  of  late.  Soon  there  will  be  more  than 
that,  for  the  field  is  widening ;  the  breaking  of 
fallow  ground,  as  people  call  it,  is  proceeding  with 
unwonted  rapidity  and  the  opportunities  are  un¬ 
precedented.  As  the  miners  say,  “new  lodes” 
are  being  discovered  as  rich  as  anybody  could 
desire,  while  old  ones  are  yielding  more  than  ever. 
Up  in  Alaska  they  have  their  Klondike ;  down  in 
Africa  they  have  their  diamond  mines ;  way  off 
in  Burma  they  have  their  ruby  mines;  but  we 
Baptists  have  in  Asia  and  in  Africa  our  gold 
mines  and  our  diamond  mines  and  our  ruby 
mines,  which  beat  the  whole  of  them. 

OTHER  HOUSES  IN  THE  SAME  BUSINESS 

We  must  not  fail  to  speak  of  these ;  our  zeal 
and  our  success  have  provoked  very  many.  The 
formation  of  the  original  Baptist  house  in  London 
to  export  the  gospel  was  soon  followed  by  others, 
and  now  there  are  hundreds  of  them  all  working 
together  without  rivalry,  all  having  on  their  hands 


more  than  they  can  do,  all  of  them  having  paying 
dividends,  all  of  them  anxious  to  enlarge  their 
operations,  and  all  of  them  praying  for  each  other’s 
success.  The  like  of  it  is  never  known  among 
secular  business  houses.  Among  these  latter  they 
compete  with  each  other  and  try  to  get  ahead  of 
each  other  and  “  do  ”  each  other,  as  they  call  it, 
and  get  business  out  of  each  other’s  hands,  and 
keep  secret  all  their  movements  without  letting 
the  other  know  them.  Not  so  with  these  gospel 
houses,  —  the  more  a  neighbor’s  house  succeeds, 
the  better  the  rest  like  it.  They  tell  all  that  is 
going  on,  and  stir  each  other  by  stories  of  their 
own  success.  There  is  no  place  of  importance  on 
earth  today  where  business  houses  of  this  kind 
have  not  something  going  on  in  their  particular 
line  of  trade.  “  There  is  no  speech  nor  language 
where  their  voice  is  not  heard.  Their  line  is  gone 
out  through  all  the  earth  and  their  words  to  the 
end  of  the  world.”  You  find  branch  houses  in 
Europe  and  Asia  and  Africa,  and  in  the  great 
cities,  of  course  ;  but  if  you  go  to  Greenland  you 
will  find  them  there  ;  if  you  go  to  Patagonia  you 


12 


will  find  them  there  ;  if  you  go  to  the  islands  of, 
the  sea  you  will  find  them  there.  In  fact  their 
mission  stations  are  belting  the  globe,  north  and 
south,  east  and  west.  England  has  so  much  terri¬ 
tory  that  it  is  said  the  sun  never  sets  upon  all 
at  once.  Still  more  true  is  it  of  us.  Already  the 
sun  never  sets  upon  our  mission  stations.  Be¬ 
fore  it  is  done  shining  on  one  place  it  has  begun 
shining  on  another,  and  no  matter  what  time  it  is 
in  the  twenty-four  hours,  there  are  plenty  of  sta¬ 
tions  which  at  that  very  moment  have  the  sun 
directly  overhead.  We  are  sure  of  an  everlasting 
noonday,  take  it  all  in  all. 

INCREASE  IN  OUR  BUSINESS 

To  give  you  a  little  idea  of  how  the  missionary 
business  has  increased  since  that  first  Baptist  so¬ 
ciety  was  started  in  England,  and  indeed  since  our 
own  was  started  eighty-eight  years  ago,  we  may 
say  that  the  one  station  started  by  Carey  has  now 
multiplied  to  five  thousand  large,  central  stations, 
together  with  at  least  twenty-five  thousand  smaller 
ones.  Where  there  were  three  men,  Carey, 


Marshman  and  Ward,  there  are  now  fifteen  thou¬ 
sand  men  and  women  in  the  work  ;  where  there 
was  no  church  at  all,  there  are  now  eleven  thou¬ 
sand,  and  where  there  was  one  convert,  Krishna 
Pal,  there  are  now  more  than  a  million  and  a  half 
of  Baptist  converts  and  more  than  twice  as  many 
more  of  what  they  call  adherents ;  that  is,  persons 
who,  though  they  have  not  come  out  openly,  have 
quit  worshipping  idols  and  are  regularly  listening 
to  Christian  truth.  The  religious  future  of  Asia 
and  Africa  belongs  to  this  great  gospel-promul¬ 
gating  house.  Hinduism  is  going  down  before  it, 
and  so  is  Confucianism,  and  so  is  Buddhism. 

It  ought  to  do  us  Baptists  good  to  consider  the 
very  honorable  place  we  have  in  this  list  of  great 
business  houses.  We  are  among  the  first  of  them. 
We  do  not  collect  and  disburse  so  much  money 
as  some  of  them,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  we  have 
more  converts  to  show  for  what  we  have  done 
than  any  of  them.  This  is  not  boasting,  but  is 
said  by  way  of  increasing  our  confidence  and 
stimulating  us  to  greater  effort.  We  should  be 
stupid  and  culpable  if  we  did  not  appreciate  the 


14 


magnificent  position  we  occupy  among  the  great 
church  forces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  working 
together  for  the  regeneration  of  the  kingdoms  of 
the  earth. 

OUR  SHARE  IN  THE  GREAT  CONCERN 

We  ourselves  have  an  interest  in  the  business. 
It  came  to  us  as  an  inheritance.  Our  old  fathers 
and  mothers  who  were  in  it  in  the  beginning  have 
gone  the  way  of  all  the  earth.  They  may  have 
left  us  various  things  of  value,  possibly  houses  and 
lands  and  stocks  of  one  kind  and  another,  but  not 
even  the  rich  ones  among  them  have  left  us  any¬ 
thing  of  more  priceless  worth  than  their  share  in 
this  paying  concern  of  God  Almighty.  They  have 
gone,  these  good  people;  they  sit  today,  so  to 
speak,  on  the  parapets  of  heaven,  and  look  down 
on  what  they  left  behind  to  their  children.  There 
is  the  unfinished  work  of  their  day  and  generation 
— the  great  enterprise  of  the  world’s  redemption. 
Could  they  but  come  back  to  us  from  the  other 
world  with  a  message  in  relation  to  property 
affairs,  we  are  certain  they  would  say :  “  Oh,  chil- 


dren,  prize  like  your  very  life  your  share  in  the 
mission  enterprise ;  the  houses  we  gave  you  will 
go  to  pieces,  the  lands  we  gave  you  will  become 
impoverished,  the  stocks  we  left  you  will  depreci¬ 
ate,  but  these  missionary  shares  are  advancing  all 
the  time.  There  is  nothing  that  stands  so  high 
even  here.  The  angels  care  nothing  about  your 
great  mines  and  your  great  warehouses  and  your 
great  syndicates;  there  is  not  one  of  them  that 
cares  to  invest  in  the  best  of  them.  But  when  it 
comes  to  the  shares  in  Christ’s  wonderful  enter¬ 
prise  they  are  full  of  admiration ;  they  gladly  give 
their  service,  and  with  joy  go  forth  to  minister  to 
them  who  are  heirs  of  salvation,  and  heirs  of  this 
great  trust  along  with  it  all.  All  the  time  the 
angels  desire  to  look  into  it  all.” 

OUR  RESPONSIBILITY  IN  THE  BUSINESS 

How  ought  we  to  demean  ourselves  under  such 
a  legacy  ?  It  includes  all  the  unredeemed  prom¬ 
ises  of  the  living  God  which  are  handed  down  to 
us  as  part  of  the  heavenly  portion,  —  promises  of 
the  blessings  of  the  heaven  above,  blessings  of  the 

16 


deep  that  lieth  under ;  above  the  blessing's  of  our 
progenitors  unto  the  utmost  bound  of  the  ever¬ 
lasting  hills.  It  includes  the  legacy  of  our  fathers' 
and  mothers’  unanswered  prayers  for  the  good  of 
Zion.  We  are  the  heirs-at-law  of  the  whole.  It 
is  a  way  that  God  has  of  making  good  to  the 
children  the  promises  made  to  the  father ;  the 
father  may  die  before  the  time  comes  to  send  an 
answer,  but  God,  who  administers  probate,  passes 
it  on  to  the  children  if  the  children  only  possess 
the  spirit  of  the  father.  So  the  apostle  spoke  of 
the  promises  made  to  the  fathers  which,  said  he, 
God  hath  fulfilled  toward  us,  their  children. 

Good  for  many  of  us  that  we  are  taking  up 
the  work  the  fathers  had  to  lay  down  at  death. 
There  is  no  better  specimen  of  loyalty  and  fidelity 
to  a  great  trust  seen  on  earth  than  when  sons  and 
daughters  step  into  the  vacant  place,  and  continue 
to  pray  as  their  fathers  prayed,  and  give  as  their 
fathers  gave.  That  is  filial  piety  in  real  earnest,  — 
that  is  indeed  continuing  the  succession  of  the 
family  line.  You  are  entitled  to  a  coat-of-arms, 
on  which  shall  be  some  such  motto  as  this  :  “  We 


17 


receive  and  we  give  ”  When  anybody  asks  you 
about  your  crest,  you  can  say  :  “  My  grandfather 
gave,  and  my  father  gave,  and  now  I  give ;  and  I 
will  teach  my  son  to  give,  and  we  will  keep  it  up 
till  the  kingdom  comes ;  the  Missionary  Union 
shall  never  lack  a  liberal  and  cheerful  giver  in  our 
family  so  long  as  God  keeps  us  going  as  a  fam¬ 
ily.”  May  our  fidelity  be  such  that  God  will  say 
of  us  as  he  said  of  Abraham :  “  For  I  know  him 
that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his  house¬ 
hold  after  him.”  Lord,  so  let  it  be!  Let  us 
never  be  short  when  a  missionary  collection  is  to 
be  taken ;  let  us  never  grow  stingy ;  let  our  purses 
never  have  the  lockjaw  nor  the  strings  thereof 
dangle  loose  when  the  Lord  asks  for  an  offering. 
Let  our  pocketbooks,  somehow  or  other,  act  as 
the  iron  gates  did  before  Peter,  and  open  of  their 
own  accord. 


THE  HOUSE  ROBBED 

But  now,  alas,  for  many  others  of  us  who 
never  do  anything !  About  one  third  of  all  the 
churches  of  our  land  never  give  one  red  cent. 


18 


Many  members  in  giving  churches  never  give  one 
red  cent .  They  leave  the  others  to  do  the  whole 
of  it,  and  yet  they  are  under  obligations  just  as 
much  as  people  who  give  every  Sunday.  A  man 
who  accepts  the  gospel  must  accept  it  with  all  its 
attendant  conditions  and  obligations.  One  of 
those  obligations  is  to  give  what  you  have  re¬ 
ceived,  to  pass  it  to  the  next  man  and  the  next 
woman.  You  may  say  you  will  eat  and  drink, 
but  you  will  not  share  with  anybody.  Now,  have 
you  the  mind  of  Christ  ?  Be  honest  with  your¬ 
self,  and  ask  yourself  if  you  are  acting  like  a 
Christian.  It  may  be  your  very  salvation  de¬ 
pends  on  an  honest  answer,  —  not  that  the  giving 
of  money  will  save  you,  but  the  withholding  of 
what  is  due  to  your  Master  and  to  your  needy 
missionary  societies  and  to  your  dying  fellow-men 
may  prove  that  you  have  not  the  love  of  God  in 
you.  The  apostle  John  teaches  that  very  doc¬ 
trine  :  “  If  a  man  have  this  world’s  goods,  and 
seeth  his  brother  have  need,  and  shutteth  up  his 
bowels  of  compassion  ”  — you  know  the  rest  of 
it.  John  either  knew  or  he  did  not  know ;  if  he 


19 


did  not  know,  then  you  cannot  trust  him  in  other 
things ;  if  he  did  know,  where  will  you  stand  ? 
You  say  your  father  was  a  good  man,  yet  he 
never  gave  anything ;  your  grandfather  was  a 
good  man,  yet  he  never  gave  anything  ;  you  are 
the  third  generation,  and  you  never  give  anything. 
So  much  the  worse  for  you.  You  ought  to  be 
all  the  more  anxious  to  make  up  for  this  defect. 
Your  family  line  ought,  in  you,  to  make  a  new 
start.  Will  a  man  rob  God  ?  was  asked  of  old. 
Your  answer  would  have  to  be  :  “Yes,  Lord,  my 
grandfather  robbed  thee  and  my  father  robbed 
thee  and  now  I  rob  thee  —  three  generations  of 
us  who  have  never  given  a  red  cent  to  save  a 
single  lost  heathen  soul.”  Oh,  my  withholding 
brother,  turn  a  new  leaf  at  once ! 

A  MAGNIFICENT  CRISIS  TO  BE  MET 

The  old  Union  never  had  such  an  opportunity 
as  it  has  just  now.  “  White  for  the  harvest ! 
White  for  the  harvest!  ”  is  the  cry  everywhere. 
White  for  the  harvest  upon  the  mountains  of 
Assam ;  white  for  the  harvest  on  the  plains  of 


20 


India ;  white  for  the  harvest  on  the  rivers  of  Burma ; 
white  for  the  harvest  in  the  valleys  of  China; 
white  for  the  harvest  in  the  islands  of  Japan  and 
the  Philippines,  and  lo,  too,  white  for  the  harvest 
in  the  wilds  of  Africa.  Our  old  business  house 
has  openings  by  the  score  ;  and  there  are  the  men, 
and  the  women,  too,  all  ready ;  but  the  means, 
the  means  wherewith  to  send  them  out !  It  is 
sorely  pressed  for  means.  The  massacre  in  China 
has  not  scared  them.  For  every  one  that  falls, 
two  rise  up  and  say,  “  Here,  Lord,  am  I,  send 
me.”  “Here,  Baptist  men  and  women  of  the 
Missionary  Union,  here  am  I,  send  me  to  China.” 
On  the  way  up  the  Mount,  Isaac  asked  his  father, 
“  Behold  the  fire  and  the  wood,  but  where  is  the 
lamb  for  an  offering?  ”  Nowadays  we  say,  Be¬ 
hold  the  lamb  for  an  offering,  in  China,  if  need 
be,  —  yes,  a  “burnt  offering”  as  some  of  the 
others  have  been,  if  God  should  so  will  it,  but 
where  are  the  means  for  getting  there  to  preach 
the  everlasting  gospel  for  a  few  years  before  we 
die? 

The  answer  to  that  question  must  come  from 


21 


you  to  whom  appeal  is  now  made  to  come  for¬ 
ward  and  stand  by  the  honored  missionary  house 
of  your  sainted  fathers  and  mothers. 


LITERATURE  DEPARTMENT 
AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION 
TREMONT  TEMPLE,  B08T0N,  MASS. 


3D  ED.  5-02.  5M. 


Headquarters  of  “The  Missionary  Union,’'  Tremont  Temple, 

Boston,  Mass. 


SAMUEL  USHER.  BOSTON 


